Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN) has announced the launch of the Morningstar PitchBook GenAI 20 Index, a new benchmark designed to offer exposure to pure-play generative AI companies as they transition from private markets through public listing.
The Morningstar PitchBook GenAI 20 Index addresses a market gap where many companies driving significant breakthroughs in generative AI remain private and are therefore unrepresented in traditional market benchmarks. The index provides targeted, rules-based exposure to leading pure-play generative AI innovators, maintaining a perpetual structure that continuously tracks companies across their private-to-public lifecycle. This approach aims to provide a consistent framework for measuring, comparing, and analyzing GenAI leadership as the market develops.
Sanjay Arya, Head of Innovation at Morningstar Indexes, stated, “Staying at the forefront of innovation in generative AI requires a clear view of opportunities across both public and private markets. As private markets play an increasingly critical role in technology development, having transparent and measurable benchmarks is essential. We believe this new index helps provide clarity to one of the most important growth themes of the next decade.”
The index leverages the global private markets data and expertise of PitchBook, a Morningstar company, to identify companies advancing core technologies. These technologies include machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and agentic AI, classified through a robust framework.
Dimitri Zabelin, Senior Investment Research Analyst, AI & Cybersecurity at PitchBook, commented, “GenAI represents a fundamental shift in how software is built, deployed, and scaled across the global economy. Its horizontal nature allows core generative models to influence nearly every sector simultaneously, reshaping workflows, products, and decision-making at unprecedented speed. As this transformation accelerates, the companies advancing foundational GenAI capabilities are increasingly central to how value is created in the technology ecosystem. Understanding how this layer evolves, consolidates, and scales is essential to interpreting the next phase of technological change.”
Morningstar has recently expanded its investor tools to navigate the convergence of public and private markets. These include enhanced coverage of private companies and semiliquid funds from Morningstar Manager Research, standardized categories and metrics from Morningstar Direct, differentiated benchmarks from Morningstar Indexes, and unified workflow tools from PitchBook, such as its private markets reference data and analytics suite.
Morningstar Indexes, recognized as the fastest-growing global index provider for the last five years by Burton-Taylor International Consulting, aims to address the evolving needs of investors. Morningstar, Inc. is a provider of independent investment insights across North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, offering products and services for various investor types and managing approximately $352 billion in AUMA as of June 30, 2025.
